Chapter 9 - Philosophy

Summary

In nineteenth-century Scandinavia, philosophy was not merely an academic matter. Beyond a relatively small group of philosophy professors at the universities in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, philosophical ideas saturated culture more broadly, including the theatre. Thus, the philosophical context of Ibsen’s drama must be understood historically and contextually. Of particular importance – albeit often overlooked in the scholarly literature – is modern philosophy of drama as it develops in the works of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Johann Gottfried Herder and the Sturm und Drang movement. Later, we see an interest in romantic philosophy, the works of Germaine de Staël and the idealist position of G.W.F. Hegel. Towards the end of the century, the ideas of Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche featured centrally in Ibsen’s intellectual circles.